For purposes of this blog entry, the air conditioning system will be a typical split system. A split system has an outdoor unit and an indoor unit. These types of systems are common in Central Florida.

There are four main components to an air conditioning system: a compressor, two heat exchangers, and a metering device. These four components, working together, transfer heat from one area to another. In this example, heat is transferred from inside the home to outside the home.

The compressor is the pump or heart of the system. It pumps the refrigerant from one heat exchanger through the metering device to the other heat exchanger and then back to the compressor again.

The two heat exchangers are the condenser and evaporator coils. The condenser coil is located outside in a unit that contains the compressor, outdoor fan (that draws air through the condenser coil) and the condenser coil. The other heat exchanger is the evaporator coil, which also has a fan that draws air across the coil. The air handling unit (or indoor unit) contains the evaporator coil and a blower fan. It is located inside the home and has the air distribution system connected to it.

The last component is the metering device which acts like a dam and is located between the two heat exchangers. The metering device helps provide a pressure drop in the refrigerant loop which helps facilitate the heat transfer from one heat exchanger to the other.

All of these components, working together, provide the mechanism for the heat transfer from inside the home to outside the home. Any breakdown in these components can cause the heat exchange to be less effective (or fail in the worst case scenario). If your system is struggling during the hot summer days, please give us a call at Atlas Air Conditioning Services to have your system checked out to determine whether it’s working optimally.